BMDL

Q: iCloud: 2 universes for 2 users on 1 mac (sierra)

My husband and I share one PowerMac. We each have our own iPad and iPhone. We each have a separate Apple ID, iCloud account and storage plans.  We want our one PowerMac to support our two iCloud/two Apple ID separate universes. That way, certain content on our mac , accessed with User 1's  Apple ID and iCloud drive is linked to and can be synced with User 1's Apple mobile devices. And, content accessed with User 2's Apple ID and iCloud drive is linked to and can be synced with User 2's Apple mobile devices. Basically, I don't want some of his stuff on my devices and he doesn't want some of my stuff on his devices. By stuff, I mean music, books, photos, videos, emails, messages, even bookmarks and reading lists. We would like to share some information on the mac, like contacts, passwords (keychain?), calendar, some photos, folders and business-related content. Most of the music library (which he doesn't want) is saved on separate drive.

 

When I tried to sync my iPad with our mac, his iCloud account appeared to be at the top of the hierarchy on the mac. I was prompted to sign out his iCloud account and sign in mine. But when I  signed into my iCloud account, I saw the message that I'm already signed into my iCloud account. This caused his email on the mac to disappear as well as everything else under his iCloud account.  Family sharing under the iCloud setting doesn't provide the solution because it also requires one primary (the organizer) account. We want separate but equal iCloud universes on the mac.  Any suggestions?

PowerMac, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 1, 2016 4:43 PM

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Q: iCloud: 2 universes for 2 users on 1 mac (sierra)

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  • by zinacef,

    zinacef zinacef Oct 1, 2016 7:13 PM in response to BMDL
    Level 5 (4,822 points)
    Applications
    Oct 1, 2016 7:13 PM in response to BMDL

    As far as I know, what you're describing or thinking of doing sounds like a nightmare, and I don't think it's at all possible, i.e. having some of your data on his account and vice versa.

  • by FishingAddict,

    FishingAddict FishingAddict Oct 1, 2016 7:29 PM in response to BMDL
    Level 4 (1,579 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 1, 2016 7:29 PM in response to BMDL

    Please clarify if you each have separate Mac user accounts or if you are trying to both share a Mac user account?

     

    If you have separate user accounts on the Mac (as you should), then each of those accounts does have completely separate iCloud settings and storage.  If you are logged into the Mac, go to Settings > iCloud and it will show your iCloud account settings whereas if your spouse is logged in, they will only see theirs.

     

    If you are both sharing a single Mac user account, then what you are trying is impossible.  All modern operating systems (Mac OS, Windows, Linux, etc.) agree and are designed in a way that expects a user to be a single individual.  If you insist on sharing a user account, you will also find that every other cloud service fails to work correctly as well (e.g  DropBox, OneDrive, Google Drive).

     

    At least you have a good start in that you have separate AppleIDs.  Just create a separate user account for each of you on the Mac and you should be good.

  • by BMDL,

    BMDL BMDL Oct 1, 2016 10:35 PM in response to FishingAddict
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 1, 2016 10:35 PM in response to FishingAddict

    Hmmm, having a memory lapse. The only "identities" we have that I can recall setting up are the Apple

    IDs, and those also serve as our respective iCloud IDs. Our PowerMac supports our individual (Apple) email accounts and also our (Apple) business email account. Please point me in the right direction so that I may investigate the user account situation. Thanks

  • by BMDL,

    BMDL BMDL Oct 1, 2016 11:43 PM in response to BMDL
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 1, 2016 11:43 PM in response to BMDL

    The more I think about it, the more your explanation of 1 mac / 1 user makes sense. I now recall, having looked at the notes I made when I purchased this PowerMac in late 2013, describing to the Apple Store person my one laptop / two Apple ID universes idea (I think the Cloud was just coming onto the market as I had been a MobileMe person), even diagraming the flow of content to each of our devices, and he emphatically stated that my idea could happen via our Apple IDs. Otherwise, he should have told me to set up two users on the PowerMac I was purchasing, don't you think? I wouldn't even try creating an additional user now because it would be impossible to divide the content. (In addition to being married and sharing a lot of content for that reason, we also run a business and store the business data on this PowerMac.) Our individual interests are pursued on our individual devices which is why we don't want each other's content using up our storage space.  The iCloud product has developed in a way that approaches content differently and is based on a one user / one Primary iCloud account set up. I guess we will have to try the family manager product although I'm upset that we each upgraded our storage capacity on our iCloud accounts and one of us will not use it. Thanks for your help, FishingAddict

  • by LACAllen,

    LACAllen LACAllen Oct 2, 2016 12:31 PM in response to BMDL
    Level 5 (5,194 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 2, 2016 12:31 PM in response to BMDL

    Make no mistake, one can have multiple user accounts at the Mac level quite easily. You can even leave both signed in at one one time and switch between them.

     

    Then each can be signed in to different iCloud accounts and have their independence.

     

    Is that what you want? It really isn't difficult.

     

    OS X El Capitan: Set up users on your Mac

     

    OS X Yosemite: Switch quickly between users